Eddie Jordan impressed with 22-year-old F1 driver this year, he’s driven ‘the wheels off the car’

We’re reaching the point in the year where we can begin to assess how each team and driver has performed

throughout the campaign.

Max Verstappen and Red Bull have set the benchmark which is why there’s so much pressure on Sergio Perez going forward.

The Mexican started the season matching his teammate but the drop off in comparison to the Dutchman has been alarming.

AlphaTauri were the only team that decided they needed to make a driver change during the campaign, with Daniel

Ricciardo and Liam Lawson coming in for Nyck de Vries.

One team who will look back on this season knowing that they found the right setup in the end is McLaren.

They were awful at the start of the year, with both cars struggling to finish races and even when they did, they were

rarely challenging for points.

However, the turnaround this season has been virtually unprecedented and Eddie Jordan has admitted that Oscar

Piastri’s performances have been fantastic.

Alongside Lando Norris, the young pair have helped McLaren rise to fourth in the Constructors’ Championship.

The 22-year-old even has a Sprint Race win to his name which is a huge feat and something his more experienced

teammate is yet to achieve.

Jordan impressed with Piastri this season

Talking about McLaren’s campaign, Jordan said: “I was very critical. I’ve been critical of McLaren in the past.

“I think whoever made the decision to leave Honda was an absolute fool’s paradise, it was the worst decision they

could have ever made, but they’ve come back from it, you’re absolutely right.

“So, full credit, they’ve changed the floor, and you have to give the drivers some credit for that and I think what Oscar

[Piastri] has done in that team, he’s shown that the car must be really OK to drive.

“Because he’s a rookie you couldn’t expect him to know anything like what Lando [Norris] does or vice versa, but he’s

able to drive the wheels off that car and I think that has probably upped Lando’s mojo in terms of what he now wants to do.

“He doesn’t want to be beaten by his young teammate. There are a lot of things going for them, a lot of people didn’t

think they could ever aspire to come up and challenge the likes of Mercedes and Ferrari, but they certainly have. And

the results are simply fantastic, two great young drivers.”

Piastri is this year’s best rookie, he needs to kick on in 2024

Pretty much everyone within the F1 paddock will agree with Jordan that Piastri has had a fantastic season.

During the middle of the year, he was virtually matching Norris in qualifying and with his race pace.

However, in the last few weekends, Norris has taken his performances to another level and has more than doubled

his new teammate’s points tally.

That slight drop-off has to be caveated with the fact that he hadn’t ever driven at the last six tracks Formula 1 visited.

Las Vegas will be a level playing field for every driver though and it’ll be interesting to see how the young Aussie

copes on the streets of Sin City.